Recently, aircraft personnel have become more diligent on commercial aircraft in view of increased security measures in transportation and public safety. To be effective in these roles, the aircraft personnel require the capability to communicate with one another, with the aircraft flight deck personnel and systems (that is, onboard communications), and with flight command and control center personnel and systems on the ground (that is, off board communications). These message transmissions (data and voice messages) are preferably made in a secured and covert mode. This is especially desirable for those aircraft personnel who expect to remain discrete during particular situations.
Additionally, pilots and ground crew require consistent and uncompromised (that is, secure) access to the contents of the message transmissions during these particular situations. These messages transmissions require information security protection. Information security protection provides at least one of: (1) authentication that a message originator is as claimed; (2) that the message is transmitted with integrity (that is, the message has not been modified during transmission); and (3) that the message is confidential, meaning that it cannot be read by those for whom it is not intended. Further uses for the same system could include, for example, requests for flight information such as an arrival gate number, international security (customs) declaration requirements, passenger information for connecting flight(s), and the like.